Role models and idols

Human beings are similar to each other but each of us has unique perssonality

• Our personality is influenced by

1. families
2. school
3. friends
4. sportsmen
5. family

   = the first role models, our parents teach us to be polite, to greet, to respect people

   = for young children – their paretns are their role models

   = for teenagers – parents are not role models anymore, they are more „enemies“

6. school

   = we are taught how to get on with other people

   = we learn to be tolerant/pati­ent/self-disciplined/de­termined/hard-working (qualities are necessary to be successful)

   = we learn how to compromise and cooperate with others

   = teachers can also become our role models

• Schoolmates = teenagers spend a lot of time at school so their schoolmates are also role models

3. friends

   = influenced our personalities a great deal especially during the teenage age

4. celebrities

   = their are mainly the fashion icons for teenagers.They admire and adore celebrities for outfits and looks. Celebrities might learn people to be tolerant and empathetic by organizing mega concerts in order to gain money for charities and people in need.

But the influence can also be negative (alcohol, drugs, anorexia, addiction, wild behaviour, rudeness, not respect of other people, committing crimes).So it is important to choose the right role models or pick up the right qualities of the role model.

Good role models can be found in literary works, in stories and novels.

Most literary (fiction) heroes are people with high moral standards.But these heroes don’t live in a real world so we shouldn’t try to be or react in the same way as the heroes do because the real world is usually completely different from the fiction so we may become disappointed or we may sound ridiculous.

Real (everyday) heroes – firefighters, lifeguards, soldiers, doctors etc.

• they are brave and they don’t hesitate to risk their lives and help vicitms of natural disasters (earthquakes, floods, wars, hurricanes, tsunami etc.)
• they are definitely better role models than celebrities but unfortunately young people don’t realise it!

A person who is able to risk the life for somebody else should have at least these qualities

• brave – he must be able to risk his life
• responsible – because he often must do serious decisions
• reliable – because people´s lives depend on him
• physically strong – he must have endurance
• mentally strong – because he must be able to manage with sight at suffering people, people who – are seriously injured
• hard-working – sometimes he has to work long hours
• willing to help any time